Avery’s Bench.Spirit Park

This bench serves as a memorial for the life of Avery Lindholm (2012 – 2015). Its conception arose from the kind heart of Avery's Aunts, Uncles and Cousins reaching out to me to design, build and install this memorial. It has been placed and dedicated with a small ceremony in Spirit Park, Eagle River, Alaska.

The inspiration for the design came from the forms seen in Japanese Gardens and Temples.

The majority of the work was done with hand tools, using traditional and other joinery, and wooden pegs were used for most of the connections.

The stones that create the feet or foundation for the bench were collected from a riverside campsite where Avery and her family and friends would gather on summer weekends.

I had lots of help from Becky and also from Matt, Brad and J.T. when it came time to install the bench. Four dudes to do a one dude job works for me when its a job worth gathering together for.

Huge thanks to Popperts Milling of Wasilla, AK for their generous donation of wood for this project.

Thanks also to Parks and Rec, Vik, Karen and James for helping make this happen.

Thanks for the lessons learned from Monroe Robinson of Little River, California/Twin Lakes, Alaska and to Mark Wedekind with Blackstone Design in Anchorage, AK for consultation. I also gained a lot of inspiration from images of work by Luke Hart Weller's CopperWood Gallery. It's enormously helpful to have Masters and Mentors willing to share their skills and knowledge.

It's been a very clear goal of mine to consider and chase what it means to work with spirit or heart as much as head and hands. Maybe the balance is different for every project. I consider it a great gift from Avery and her family that I was able to explore deeply what it is to work from the heart and full of spirit on this project. I knew and loved Avery very much and it has been my honor to create this bench.